Dungeon, or Beggary, decrepit Age!
Light, the prime Work of God to me is extinct,
And all her various Objects of Delight
Annull'd, which might in Part my Grief have eas'd
Inferiour to the vilest now become
Of Man or Worm; the vilest here-excelme,
They creep, yet see, I dark in Light expos'd
To daily fraud, contempt, abuse and wrong,
Within Doors, or without, still as a Fool,
In power of others, never in my own;
Scarce half I seem to live, dead more than half.
O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of Noon,
recoverably dark, total Eclipse
Without all hope of Day!
O first created Beam, and thou great Word,
Let there be Light, and Light was over all :
Why am I thus bereav'd thy prime Decree?
The Sun to me is dark
And filent as the Moon,
When she deserts the Night
Hid in her vacant interlunar Cave.
Since Light so neceffary is to Life,
And almost Life it self, if it be true
That Light is in the Soul,
She all in every Part; why was the Sight
To fuch a tender Ball as th' Eye confin'd?
So obvious and so easy to be quench'd,
And not as Feeling through all Parts diffus'd
That she might look at will through every pore,
Then had I not been thus exil'd from Light;
As in the Land of Darkness, yet in Light,
To live a Life half Dead, a living Death,
And buried; but O yet more miferable!
My felf, my Sepulchre, a moving Grave,
Buried not yet exempt
By Privilege of Death and Burial.
From worst of other Evils, Pains and Wrongs,
But made hereby obnoxious more
To all the Miseries of Life,
Life in Captivity
Among inhuman Foes.
Milton's Sampson Agonistes.
YE Virgin Powers, defend my Heart
From am'rous Looks and Smiles,
From fawcy Love, or nicer Art,
Which most our Sex beguites.
From Sighs and Vows, from awful Fears,
That do to Pity move,
From speaking Silence, and from Tears,
Those Springs that water Love.
But if through Passion I grow Blind,
Let Honor be my Guide;
And where frail Nature seems inclin'd
There pince a Guard of Pride.
An Heart whose Flames are seen, tho pure,
Needs every Virtue's Aid;
And the who thinks herself secure,
The soonest is betray'd.
Written in the Leaves of a Fan.
Lavia the least and flightest Toy
Can, with refiftless Art, employ.
This Fan, in meaner Hands, wou'd prove.........
An Engine, of small force in Love.
Yet she, with graceful Air and Meen,
(Not to be told! or fafely seen!)
Directs its wanton Motions so,
That it wounds more than Cupid's Bow:
Gives Coolness to the matchless Dame,
To every other Breast a Flame.
Aireft of thy Sex, and beft,
Admit my humble Tale;
'Twill ease the Torment of my Breast
Tho' I shall ne'er prevail.
No fond Ambition me does move
Your Favour to implore,
I ask not for return of Love,
But Freedom to adore..
A Description of FAME.
FAME, the great III, from small beginnings grow,
Swift from the first, and every Moment brings
New Vigour to her Flights, new Pinions to her Wings..
Soon grows the Pygmy to Gigantick Size;
Her Feet in Earth, her Forehead in the Skies.
Inrag'd against the Gods, revengeful Earth
Produc'd her last of the Titanian Birth;
Swift in her Walk, more swift her winged haste,
A monstrous Phantom, horrible and vast.
As many Plumes as raise her lofty Flight,
So many piercing Eyes enlarge her Sight.
Millions of opening Mouths to Fame belong,
And every Mouth is furnish'd with a Tongue,
And round with lift'ning Ears the flying Plague is
(hung.
She fills the peaceful Universe with Crys,
No Slumbers ever close her wakeful Eyes :
By Day, from lofty Towers her Head she shews,
And spreads thro' trembling Clouds disastrous News.
With Court-Informers Haunts and Royal Spies,
Things done relates, not done she seigns, and min-
(gles Truth with Lies,
Talk is her Bus'ness, and her chief Delight
To tell of Prodigies, and cause Affright.
W Fille Fame is young, too weak to fly away, Envy pursues her, like fome Bird of Prey: But once on Wing, then all the Dangers cease; Envy herself is glad to be at Peace; Gives over, weary'd with so high a Flight, Above her reach, and scarce within her Sight. But fuch the Frailty is of Human Kind, Men toil for Fame, which no Man lives to find. Long-rip'ning under Ground this China lies, Fame bears no Fruit till the vain Planter dies.
HAIL holy Light, Offspring of Heav'n first born,
Or of th' Eternal Co-eternal Beam,
May I express thee unblam'd? Since God is Light,
And never but in unapproached Light,
Dwelt from Eternity, dwelt then in thee,
Bright Efluence of bright Effence increate,
Or hear'st thou rather pure Ethereal Stream,
Whose Fountain who shall tell? before the Sun,
Before the Heav'ns thou wert, and at the Voice
Of God as with a Mantle didst invest
The rifing World of Waters dark and deep,
Won from the void and formless Infinite.
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